In the Land of the Midday Sun: An American Grandson's Search for his Southern Italian Roots

by Glionna, John M.
ISBN: 9781599542508
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Overview

The Italy of the John M. Glionna's ancestors cannot be found in the museums of Florence, among treasures shaped by the exquisite touch of da Vinci and Michelangelo, but a world away, on the peninsula's infamous boot. Their hands gnarled from planting pomodori, aglio and melanzana, his forefathers were peasant-farmers from the agrarian south - that other Italy - dirt-poor and uneducated, a land with a history of witch's spells and pagan gods. For them, working the earth wasn't art, it was a fundamental duty.

In 2023, Glionna experienced a cultural awakening: he travelled to his grandfather's home village to explore the landscape where his roots run centuries-deep. As he meets distant relatives, he asks questions echoed by all Americans exploring their ancestral homeland: "Who are these people?" "Who am I?" As a veteran Los Angeles Times journalist in search of his long-repressed Italianitá, he travels far off the tourist map, where he examines his grandfather's motives for emigrating. Beyond poverty and disease, he learns, southerners of his era faced a historic discrimination from their own countrymen that also drove them abroad. The book examines his father's upbringing as a child of immigrants and focuses on a realization that the author, like his father and grandfather, is proudly, deeply Italian, southern Italian.

  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Author: Glionna, John M.
  • ISBN: 9781599542508
  • Condition: New
  • Dimensions: 9.00 x 0.64
  • Number Of Pages: 282
  • Publication Year: 2026
Language: English